Skip to content

Mankind Quotes by Edmund Burke

17 Mankind quotes by Edmund Burke

All Mankind quotes Edmund Burke’s page

Edmund Burke’s 17 statements on humanity reveal the same conservative prudence that colored his political essays. He weighs tradition against change, urging a measured respect for the common good. Readers will find his reflections grounded in history, yet still resonant with today’s social debates.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

Futurity is the great concern of mankind.

Image

Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.

Image

In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities…

Image

He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one.

Image

For there is in mankind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views and their works, the measure of excellence in every…

Image

It is by bribing, not so often by being bribed, that wicked politicians bring ruin on mankind. Avarice is a rival to…

Image

Surely the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities of mankind.

Image

The introduction of Christianity, which, under whatever form, always confers such inestimable benefits on mankind, soon made a sensible change in these…

Image

Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so as long as the world endures. Plain good…

Image

Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and…

Image

Men are qualified for civil liberties in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetites: in proportion as…

Image

As mankind becomes more enlightened to know their real interests, they will esteem the value of agriculture; they will find it in…

Image

To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive…

Image

I cannot stand forward, and give praise or blame to any thing which relates to human actions, and human concerns, on a…

Image

In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority...and that oppression of the…

Image

To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ…

Image

I find along with many virtues in my countrymen there is a jealousy, a soreness, and readiness to take offence, as if…

Image

Other authors on Mankind

More by Edmund Burke

It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

Image

“Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural…

Image

In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution…

Image

“Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names; to the causes of evil which are permanent, not to the occasional organs…

Image

“A man full of warm, speculative benevolence may wish his society otherwise constituted than he finds it; but a good patriot, and a true…

Image

My vigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.

Image

A speculative despair is unpardonable where it our duty to act.

Image

The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of thegreat.

Image

Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never…

Image

What is it we all seek for in an election? To answer its real purposes, you must first possess the means of knowing the…

Image

Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in…

Image

You can never plan the future by the past.

Image

The great inlet by which a colour for oppression has entered into the world is by one man's pretending to determine concerning the happiness…

Image

By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never…

Image

Religion, to have any force upon men's understandings,--indeed, to exist at all,--must be supposed paramount to law, and independent for its substance upon any…

Image